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“Shh. I know what your mother means to you and to Joe and Talon. Of course I’m here.”
The manager came out of the room with two officers, and Joe and Talon pounced. Bryce led me to a chair in the waiting area.
“They’ll take care of this,” he said. “You sit down and relax for a minute.”
Relax? Right. Still, I sat. Bryce sat next to me and held my hand tightly.
“Joe knows? About us?”
He nodded. “I told him today.”
“And?”
“He’s grudgingly happy. He’ll be okay.”
“And Tal?”
“He knows now, but he’s more concerned about your mom, as he should be.”
“Who would do this? Who would take a mentally unstable woman away from her safe place?” I let out a sarcastic laugh. “Safe place. What a crock.”
“We’ll find her, sweetheart.”
“What if we don’t?”
“We will. Your brothers will put the best people on this. You know that.”
“I just got her back, Bryce. I just got her back.”
Daphne Steel was hardly normal, but she was my mother. I’d never had a mother, and now I did. A broken one, but still, she was mine. I loved her, and I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone hurting her.
“You’ll have her again. This is most likely a ploy for money.”
“But what if it’s all related to…everything else?” I didn’t say the words. Bryce had sworn me to secrecy.
“If it is, we’ll figure it out.”
I looked into his blue eyes. He looked at me with so much love that I believed him, if only for a few seconds.
He kissed my forehead.
“I love you,” I said softly.
“I love you too.”
Back at the ranch, everything was in turmoil. We’d gathered at the main house, wives included. Joe and Talon moved the table on the deck well into the yard, and we sat outside. Donny played with the dogs while Dale sat on the deck doing homework.
The police and PIs had been called, and though we were all worried, we now had to deliver more upsetting news to the rest of the family.
“We honestly didn’t remember any of this,” Joe said after telling the story of Justin Valente. “We wanted to keep it to ourselves until we figured it out, but Ted Morse seems to know about it somehow.”
“You really think Tom drugged you?” Ryan asked.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense. How else would two nine-year-olds forget the death or disappearance of a classmate? It wouldn’t happen.”
“I can find their last-known address in the school system database,” Jade said. “I’m technically still the city attorney.”
“We thought about asking you,” Bryce said, “but we didn’t want to drag any of you into this. Especially with you expecting and all.”
